News and Analysis

Ad Tech and Privacy

Consumers Split on Personalized Ads

In the year of the California Consumer Privacy Act, the data privacy movement is ascendant, and marketers are likely more aware of consumer concerns about tracking than ever before. But a fresh survey of 993 Internet users from audience intelligence firm DISQO suggests that marketers will need to continue navigating the trade-off between providing consumers the only type of ads they widely welcome — personalized ones matched to their interests — and transparently requesting consent for the kinds of tracking that make personalized ads possible.

Influencer Marketing Moves into the Mainstream

Influencer marketing is working its way into the toolboxes of major corporations, and I’m not just talking about Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg’s meme squad. Household brands including McDonald’s, Walmart, and Anheuser-Busch have turned to Linqia to test the practice.

The Pitfalls and Opportunities of Screen-Free Customer Service

One vertical that has been able to integrate voice into customer service in a meaningful way is retail. National retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and REI Co-op have created skills or teamed up with technology providers to connect with customers through voice-controlled assistants. Some retailers are accepting orders via voice, and others are doling out product information and reviews. What the most successful of these companies have in common is a defined strategy and plans to measure ROI.

Commentary

Voice Assistants Could Transform Local — But Not Necessarily How You Might Think

Voice search and AI are widely misunderstood. Generalist tech coverage has painted the picture of an opportunity that resides mostly with stationary devices like Amazon Echo. But the real scale will happen elsewhere.

New Street Fight Report: Benchmarking and Best Practices in Enterprise Local Marketing

The report Enterprise Local Marketers 2017: Benchmarking and Best Practices examines current trends in their local marketing tactics, channels, and operations. By analyzing the survey data and correlating digital marketing effectiveness with spending, tactics, and management, Street Fight has identified key enterprise local marketing best practices.

Is the Camera the ‘New Search Box’ for Local Discovery?

Though still nascent, visual search builds on a few key trends. Smartphones have increasingly powerful optics; AI and machine learning support computer vision to identify items; and there’s behavioral alignment with millennials who use the smartphone camera as a communication tool.

Latest Posts

How Automotive Marketing Is Evolving in the Digital Age

Car dealerships are an appealing target for hyperlocal media and suppliers of digital marketing technology and services. They’re relatively big spenders compared with many local businesses, and they’re adopting digital marketing faster than most.

Why Marketers Must Focus On Data ‘Far Beyond Location’ to Build a Sharper Picture Of Consumers

Tom Laband, the CEO of adsquare, recently spoke with Street Fight about the rise of mobile data, the positive impact on targeting and the company’s wider strategy to “go far beyond location” to provide intelligent mobile data for holistic and effective mobile campaigns.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook News Feed Changes Barely Alter Traffic, On-Demand Startups Falling Short

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Friends-and-Family News Feed Change Doesn’t Seem to be Hurting Publisher Traffic… Omnicom Wins Massive $3 Billion AT&T Ad Account… Postmates Has Failed to Make Uber-for-Anything Cheap…

Openings and New Hires at Tapclicks, GotU, Matchcraft

Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Google Ventures, Factual, Gooway Group, and Townsquare Media.

Raise Report: Fresh Funding for Townsquared, Yieldbot, Drizly

Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes recent rounds for Carvana, SiteZeus, Spot.IM, and Insert.

LBMA Podcast: Snapchat + Yext, Gimbal’s Experiences, Unacast’s Thomas Walle Jensen

Welcome to This Week in Location Based Marketing, a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: GoGoGrandparent, Pets At Home + GrandVisual, Macy’s + IBM’s Watson, Mentos + Posterscope, Apple iOS10, Sephora, Tinder, and Flirtey + 7Eleven.

Street Fight Daily: Brands Using Apps to Drive Revenue, Facebook Tweaks News Feed (Again)

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Three Brands Use Apps to Drive Loyalty and Revenue… Facebook Tweaks News Feed to Favor ‘Personally Informative’ Stories… How AMP Will Affect the Wider Web…

How DMN’s Speakeasy Became a Major Revenue Driver in the Digital Transition

The newspaper’s in-house digital agency has grown to 70 client businesses that provide a significant share of the estimated $40 million of annual revenue that doesn’t originate within the walls of the DMN. The division has become the centerpiece of the company’s work to to re-establish a revenue growth model.

6 Ways Brands Can Automate Updates on Local Facebook Pages

For a brand with 10, 100, or even 1,000 locations, having to create and manually update local Facebook pages can be daunting, but a number of hyperlocal vendors have stepped in with solutions to streamline the process. Here are six examples of platforms that multi-location businesses can use to automate their updates across local Facebook pages.

Street Fight Daily: Restaurants Eager for New Tech, P&G’s Facebook Experiment

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Yelp Plans to Consolidate Mobile Gains and Reach $1B in Revenue… Restaurants Would Implement Predictive Ordering, Drones if Available… Why P&G Decided Facebook Ad Targeting Often Isn’t Worth the Money…